Unit-furniture systems in their wide-ranging forms are sufficiently well known. Box-shaped office furniture systems or shelving systems are also very popular. These can be assembled with a high degree of variability for example from individual container-shaped or generally box-shaped basic units, which are sometimes also referred to below as modules. The modules may be left open for example, but may also be provided at their front with a wide range of flaps. Drawer elements may also be incorporated, etc.
Such a shelving system which can be assembled using a modular method of construction is then faced for example with the problem of how to fix the individual modules as simply as possible yet effectively to one another so that a stable overall construction finally results.
An exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation provides an improved locking system for items of furniture, in particular for box-shaped modular or basic units, in order to fasten or fix such individual parts to one another.
An exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation provides a highly efficient connecting system with which the individual items of furniture to be connected can be provided at the factory. The basic principle is such that any desired items of furniture, for example box- or container-shaped basic or modular units, provided with corresponding connecting and locking devices can be placed one on top of the other so that it is then merely necessary for example, to actuate the locking or latching device provided on the modular unit placed on top, thereby fixedly connecting the two items of furniture to one another.
The structure is preferably such that not only similar or functionally identical but, in particular, identical locking base sections are provided on each item of furniture, these being positioned in such a way that, given a corresponding structure, the locking elements provided on the two items of furniture in each case come to lie congruently to one another. Where the structure is identical it is then possible, depending on which locking base section is more easily accessible, to use the latter in turn to carry out the locking with the respective other locking section. The locking is preferably performed simply by pressing in and twisting an actuating part.
A bayonet-type locking mechanism is preferably provided. For this purpose, defined projections or depressions are formed on the individual sections and elements which interact with one another in order to produce the desired bayonet-type closure mechanism. Preferably provided locking arms may consist of arms which project radially outwards from a central section of the rotatable locking element. In the case of the basic unit, two diagonally extending locking arms are preferably provided. However, in a preferred development, the locking element is provided with locking arms arranged in a cross shape. This offers the possibility, for example, that the containers to be built one on top of the other can also be mounted on one another in a position in which they have been rotated through 90°, which means that the opening side of a box-shaped container may for example be oriented not only to the front, but also to the left, to the right or to the rear as desired. This does not have a disadvantageous effect on the effectiveness of the locking device.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the individual locking sections are designed in such a way that they correspond to the shape of a through opening in a cup-shaped bottom section of the respective locking element and, in a basic position, come to lie at the level of this through opening. The entire locking base section is thus incorporated securely against rotation in a furniture part. The furniture part equipped with such a locking element is therefore virtually closed in a continuous outer surface, since the locking arms of a locking element come to lie at the level of the through opening, this opening thereby being virtually covered.
In an exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, provision is also made for a spring device which applies force to the adjustable locking or rotating part in its unlocked basic or starting position. This ensures that the locking arms in their basic or starting position come to lie exactly in the plane of the through opening in the cup-shaped bottom of a locking base section. This also has the advantage that during an unlocking operation—when the locking arms are rotated into the release position, in which position they come to lie congruently to the through opening in the cup-shaped bottom section of a locking base—the corresponding locking element is then lifted into its unlocked position by the spring action. In this position, a further clamping mechanism which then retains the rotating part in this axial position is also provided.